There is no need for a Windows version of PsyToolkit. This
because anyone who does not want to (or is not allowed to) install
Linux, for example on a University computer, can use the browser-based
version.

Linux desktop

Linux offers different "desktop environments". They look very
different from one another. The main ones are: Cinnamon (Mint
default), KDE, Gnome, and Ubuntu’s own one.

For PsyToolkit, I strongly recommend XFCE, because it gives you more
control than other desktop environments, although it is not
necessary. For example, only the XFCE display settings dialog allows
you to directly change the refresh rate (which only matters if you
have an expensive monitor, most monitors work at 60 Hz).

Further, in XFCE you can also switch off the Desktop compositor (under
Desktop tweaks), which can make the screen slightly more responsive
(this depends on many different things).

Altogether, you do not need to worry about the desktop, but the point
is that you can have full control over your system if you want, and a
combination of Mint Linux with XFCE makes that easiest to do in my
experience.

For whom is the Linux version?

PsyToolkit is non-commercial, and the Linux package is now only
provided to university students and academics.

PsyToolkit on Linux can have some specific advantages:

For research which needs very high timing precision (note that even
the browser-based version has good enough timing to measure even
relatively small psychological effects) - To use special hardware,
such as Cedrus keyboards or special digitial IO cards (which are
supported by PsyToolkit)

There are PsyToolkit functions which can be used only on Linux, in
particular the sprite functions (moving objects)

Installation of PsyToolkit on Linux

Installing Linux for PsyToolkit is relatively simple and
straightforward, especially if you already know a bit about Linux. For
Debian-based systems (e.g., Mint and Ubuntu) as well as for RPM based
systems (e.g., Fedora) there are ready-to-install packages (see
below).

Download and install

PsyToolkit is available for different Linux distributions in
different packaging formats (RPM and Debian, or simply as source
file).

If you write me for the Linux code package, I can only answer if
your email comes from a University email address. Also, please specify
how you will use it.

Any other Linux system

Make sure you install all the dependencies which your package manager. There quite many (click here for list)

Go into the folder where the downloaded package is and open terminal.

Unpack the source package: tar -xf psytoolkit.src.2.5.2.tar.gz

Then go into the unpacked source package: cd psytoolkit_src

Install (as administrator/root): sudo ./install.sh -p

To check if it worked, type psycc -v

Dependencies

PsyToolkit needs quite a few other Linux packages. If you use the RPM
or Debian installer, these will be automatically installed. If you
install from source, you need to find install these yourself using
your packege manager.

Use PsyToolkit on Linux

Once you have installed the PsyToolkit package, it is easy to use. In
essence, the coding is the same as in the browser-based version. You
can write scripts like you would do in your webbrowser (but you need a
text editor). The PsyToolkit scripting language is the same.

You need to compile your scripts in a terminal window (details below).

Example 1

In this example, you download experiment from PsyToolkit experiment
library and compile on your Linux system.

Example 2

In this example, we use exactly the same files as in Example 2, but
now you will be able to create a "shortcut" of the experiment on the
desktop. Also, we are going to allow the experiment to work in full
screen mode.

To put it on the desktop, just use the -d option.

Type: psycc -d simon.psy

You can now run the experiment by clicking the new icon on the desktop, or by typing: ./experiment

Example 3

Copy an example from the examples in the installed example directory

Use your file manager: All examples are in /usr/share/doc/psytoolkit/2.5.2/examples/